英語エッセイ -The mysterious science of pain-

英語のあれこれ

2024.04.21

謎の多い痛みの仕組みについて

TED Talksを使ってエッセイを書く方法
TED Talks
エッセイ
質問

TED Talksを使ってエッセイを書く方法

TED Talks

エッセイ

For the centennial, scientists considered pain is a reaction to damage. However recent studies show that is not the case.

For example, there was a builder who stepped on a nail and he suffered unbearable pain. Though when the doctors checked on him the nail did not penetrate his foot but only his boots. As you can see, humans are capable of experiencing agonizing pain out of proportion to an actual injury.

So why does this happen? There are two keys. First is the actual experience of injury and the second is nociception which is the biological process in your nervous system. When your body experiences harmful stimuli the nervous system sends a response to your brain. This is called nociception. When the brain detects this signal, it will produce pain to protect your body.

However, there are some factors that will affect pain and make it useless. First is, people who go through long chronic pain experience huge stress, and their nociception signal over-activates. They become sensitive to even a non-threatening light touch. This will result in a long constant pain cycle and will outlast the actual injury. Second is the person’s emotional state. A study shows that children who think they cannot control the pain suffered more than those who think they can control the pain. Therefore, when people get treatments they will get a multi-pronged approach, such as pain specialists, physical therapists, nurses, and family.

The study around pain has just started to progress. A recent study shows that disabling specific brain circuits will eliminate pain. There is even a rare disorder that will block people to feel pain. Genetic testing reveals the fact that how to eliminate pain and contributes to producing drugs and medicine.

質問

What was your biggest pain?

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I have never been hospitalized in my entire life but I suffered from an ankle injury when I was young. I was sitting behind my dad’s bicycle and I accidentally shoved my foot into the back wheel when he was pedaling. Fortunately, it was not significant damage but I needed to stay calm at home.